Gods of Music - Because Rolling Stone Costs Too Much
Music Reviews for the Independent Music Scene
Gods of Music is a resource for fans of free, independent online music. If you're an mp3.com junkie (or often download music from similar sites), this is a great way to find music from the style, genre, and quality level you want. The site contains reviews and ratings of songs that independent artists have willingly made available online. These reviews can be searched according to rating, review date, author, the name of the artist, or the song title. This means that you can see what someone else thinks of your favorite songs as well as discover new music. There's a huge amount of free music out there if you take the time to look; a lot of it is crap or mediocre, but GoM can help sift out the occasional gems. The site also has a "Song of the Month" feature as well as interviews and articles about online music, independent music production, or music in general.
GoM does have its flaws; there's certainly a degree of unevenness in scoring (one man's 8 may be another's 6) as well as review quality (some reviews dissect and analyze a song, while others simply say that it's cool and you should listen to it). Despite its quirks, though, it's definitely a useful source of new sounds you won't find on the radio or MTV.
Gods of Music is located online at http://www.godsofmusic.com.
12/27/2005: This website seems mostly dead, probably due to the general decrease of centralized free music. If anyone knows of a newer, cooler, more-alive website that serves the same purpose, I'd love to hear about it.